More than 5 years later
Shanaya was visiting her cousin in Mumbai for a few days. She had come to see her uncle who had undergone heart bypass surgery. Shanaya's dad himself wasn't keeping well, so he told her to go and see her uncle on their behalf. It's not like she was close to them but the loving and obedient daughter that she was, she agreed to go.
Shanaya had come back to India only a month ago. After college, she flew to USA to do MS in Robotics at Oregon State University. After MS, she was doing her PhD in same from the same university when her dad fell very sick. Her mom was finding it difficult to take care of him single-handedly since her brother was also in USA studying MS. Shanaya decided to take a break from her PhD and return to Trivandrum to be there for her parents. While her dad's condition was improving, but it wasn't absolutely stable. He often landed up in hospital for a day or two every now and then as a patient of diabetes.
Shanaya's father had taken loan from bank to pay for the kids education in USA. Despite, Shanaya getting fellowship and her brother getting some fee concession, accommodation, food and travel in USA did cost a lot when converted to Indian currency. Shanaya was completely devoted to her studies and didn't do any part time job to support herself. That is how her dad wanted it to be. He wanted them to be focused in studies and not to do any job until they had finished their studies. Shanaya thought it would be better for her to take up a job while she was there in India.
She was looking for a job in Chennai as she thought it would allow her to travel to Trivandrum on weekends. She had posted her resume in the carers tab of all the big IT companies in Chennai. She was disappointed to find that there weren't any jobs in her field of specialization. Moreover all IT jobs asked for experience. She had no experience, only degrees on her resume. At that time of the year, there were almost no openings for freshers. She desperately wanted a job as she wanted to start helping her dad pay back the loans he had taken for her and her brother's education abroad. She was sure, sooner or later she would get a good paying job in a big IT company, but she doubted it would have anything to do with robotics, the subject she was doing PhD in.
Late morning, Shanaya picked up Times Ascent lying on the center table of her cousin's living room. She read all the job ads and found some 'walk in' interviews for freshers in marketing and call centers. It wasn't for programming. She got curious to find if walk in interviews were frequent in Mumbai's job scenario and if there were any for programming jobs in IT. She looked for the last Wednesday's Time Ascent. She found it in the pile of newspapers on the bottom of the center table. She was quickly reading through each and every ad when she saw the walk in interview for experienced and non-experienced engineers from Computer Science, E&TC. It said anyone with knowledge in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence will be preferred. She couldn't believe there was a job that needed candidates from her field of specialization. It felt like she found her dream job. Nothing like working in one's field of specialization. Real time work in Robotics was only going to help her more in her thesis.
The company's name was Infinity Technologies Pvt Ltd. The company provided consulting and software solutions to complex business systems. It looked like a some small start up. She hadn't heard of it but she was tempted to try it out since it said they were in Robotics. She decides to go for it. She knew, she might not be able to take up a job in Mumbai, but she anyways wanted to go for an interview. She checked the time and dates. It was on Tues, that was yesterday and Wed which meant today from 1 pm. She checked the clock it was 11:30. She hadn't even showered. She noted down the address on a paper and asked her cousin how to reach there. She quickly took shower, and found she hadn't brought her favorite kurtas with her. She slipped into one of the kurta chudidaars in suitcase. It wasn't formal enough for an interview but she never planned to go for an interview in Mumbai. She wore her kolhapuri chappals. Luckily she had her resume in a USB drive. She took a print out of it in a nearby cybercafe. She wanted to go through the company's website, but she had no time. She thought she can use 3G on her mobile to browse their website on her way to office.
She took an auto to bus stop and then bus and then again auto to reach Hiranandani Business Park in Powai since she had no idea on how to take local trains. The 3G data connection was so slow that it couldn't upload their website pages. She thought it anyways wasn't that important as they might call her for one more round of interview even if they selected her. After passing many companies like Wipro, Deloitte, J.P. Morgan, Syntel, her auto stopped in front of a nine floor ultra-modern commercial building with shimmering glass-front. It was 2 pm in her watch. She paid the auto driver and entered the lobby adorned with their wordmark logo 'Infinity Technologies'. She read the punchline underneath it ,'Ideas Become Reality', and liked it. She gave her resume to the good looking young receptionist behind the desk and told her that she was MS in Robotics and was doing PhD in it in USA. She mentioned that because she knew there would be hardly any with MS in Robotics. Receptionist nodded her head and told her to sit with other boys and girls in the room and wait to be called. Everybody sat quietly in the sofas in lobby and some read magazines from the magazine rack there.
Shanaya saw boys and girls dressed well. She wished she had dressed better for the interview. Her style had improved a lot since college, it's just that she didn't have any time. She came to know of it so late. She still attracted everybody's eye as she was naturally beautiful with silky black hair that shined and spotless milky white radiant skin. Shanaya picked up TIME magazine and flipped it's pages. Only ten minutes had passed when she saw a man wearing suit walk to receptionist with a resume in has hand. He asked her something and she pointed her to him. She saw him coming towards her. He must be in late thirties, not fat not thin, average height, good looking. He extended his arm to her to shake hands.
Man: Ms. Shanaya Pandit? He asked.
Shanaya: Yes!
Man: Hi, I'm Manoj Apte, Manager of Robotics here.
Shanaya: Hello.
Manoj: The walk in interviews are not for our Robot Research & Development Team. You could have posted your resume on our website to receive a call from us.
Shanaya realized how she read it in a hurry. She might have assumed that it was for all the positions mentioned.
Shanaya: Oh! I'm sorry.
Manoj: Don't worry! Good news is we have an urgent opening in our team and you seem to have the required qualification for the position. He smiled at her.
Manoj: Please follow me for the interview.
All the interviews were going on in the ground floor but he called the lift and took her to the top most ninth floor. It was a big hall with many cubicles. Everybody was busy working on their computers. He opened the door to conference room and asked her to be comfortable. There was one more man in the room to interview her with him. He introduced himself as Joginder, Chief Software Design Architect. He must be in his early thirties. They asked her many Networking, Robot Design, Embedded Technology and Chip Design questions for more than an hour and then personal questions for another half an hour like why did she not have any work experience and why did she not complete her PhD. She was able to answer all the questions convincingly. They even asked her to write a small driver on the computer in the conference room. She successfully completed it in half an hour. She thought it was just too much for a job interview. It was almost 4 pm. They told her she did very well in their interview, but she still has another round of interview by their CEO to be a part of Robot Research & Development Team which worked under his expert guidance. Mr. Manoj told her they will try to get her interviewed by him that day itself, so she should wait in the conference room. She decided to wait as she herself didn't want to come again and again.
Shanaya: Any idea how long will it take for the CEO interview?
Manoj: Not much. He must be on his way from the airport. He is expected anytime time here now.
Shanaya: From the airport?
Manoj: Airport is only 10 mins away from here.
Shanaya: Oh! Okay.
Joginder who was out of the conference room came in.
Joginder: CEO is here! He told Shanaya.
Then, he turned to Manoj.
Joginder: I had asked his PA to let him know that there is a candidate selected by us waiting to be interviewed by him whenever he comes. Now that he is in office, he has asked you to mail her interview evaluation sheet and skill ratings sheet.
Manoj: Okay, I'll do that right now. He walked out to his cabin.
Joginder asked Shanaya to come with him.
Shanaya got up and followed Joginder who pointed to the CEO room on the same floor.
Joginder: All the bests. You are good. He might intimidate you at first with his tough questions, but they are usually all logical. Stay cool and take your own time to think over them. I know it's been a long day for you, but buckle up for one more hour of grilling. He smiled.
She knocked on the door and heard "Come in."
She opened the door a little.
Shanaya: May I come in, sir?
She saw a tall man in a carbon black suit standing with his back to her. He was facing the glassed wall of the room. He was busy talking with someone over his cell phone . He gestured her to come in and take her seat with the hand that was not holding the phone, without looking back. His voice, posture, style of standing, tall lean frame, the long fingers of his hand everything reminded her of Abhimanyu. 'No, it can't be', she told to herself. It was not possible. Abhimanyu can't be CEO of a company at twenty seven years of age. Has to be some old man. She looked at his black hair, then thought everybody dyes hair these days. She studied him more closely as he continued on phone. Those fair hands holding the mobile looked like hands of a young man, not some old man. The more she heard his voice, the faster her heart beat. She couldn't wait to see the face of the man whose voice resembled Abhimanyu so much.
After ending the call, he turned to see the candidate sitting in his room to be interviewed. He looked at Shanaya and she looked at Abhimanyu, and the time froze with them looking at each other's face with thousands of flashbacks in a minute. Flashbacks from past, moments of happiness and pain. Abhimanyu remembered how he drank himself to death. He broke out of the moment. He pulled his chair to sit, and cleared his throat to speak.
Abhimanyu: Ms. Shanaya, long time! He stressed on her name.
Shanya: Yes! She held up herself and controlled all her emotions.
Abhimanyu: So, is it a Miss or a Mrs. now?
Shanaya: I am not married.
She handed him the resume that she got with her. She felt very uncomfortable with the thought that he was going to interview her. She wanted to run away from there.
Abhimanyu: Give me a minute. Let me go through your interview evaluation sheet.
He went through the mails on an already open laptop on his table. Shanaya looked how handsome he looked, more handsome than before with a 5 O' clock shadow. He was super fit with a perfect lean body. Earlier, her was a handsome boy, and now he was a handsome man. That was the only difference. Shanaya couldn't take eyes off him. He looked so God damn hot reading mails on his laptop.
Abhimanyu: Well, I see you have been rated 9 on a scale of 10 in every skill. Looking at the facts that you are MS in Robotics and were doing PhD from Oregon State University, I have no doubts that you are technically very sound. He said looking at the laptop.
Abhimanyu: So, Shanaya Pandit, just few questions for formality sake. He realized that he never knew her surname in college.
Anhimanyu: Where do you see yourself in next five years?
Shanaya knew only one answer to that question which she had by heart, and it was his. She couldn't tell him his own answer. She didn't know what to answer. She got very nervous.
Shanaya: Next to you.
Abhimanyu: What?
Shanaya: No, no, I mean, like you are CEO of company , I could be chief architect no..a board member... I mean someone very very important to you and close to you. I mean close to your position. I mean CTO ( Chief Technology Officer) in your company, a position next to yours.
She breathed and felt relieved that she finally got it right.
Abhimanyu could see how nervous she was to see him all of a sudden after so many years, so was he. On top of that she was being interviewed by someone from her own batch in college. Definitely not a great feeling.
Abhimanyu: I see you were doing PhD in Robotics at Oregon State University, USA. What brought you back without completing it?
Shanaya: My dad isn't keeping well. So, I came back to take care of him.
Abhimanyu: Is your dad in Mumbai?
Shanaya: No, in Trivandrum, but I can't get a job worthy of my qualifications there. I intend to travel on weekends.
Abhimanyu: What about your PhD? Do you intend to complete it?
Shanaya: Yes.
Abhimanyu: Knowing that you might go back to US anytime to finish your PhD, why do you think I should hire you? He asked very seriously.
Shanaya: Because it's a role that I wouldn't simply fill but exceed at it. Moreover, I don't think I am going back anytime soon.
He extended his hands for a handshake. She gave her hand and he shook it firmly.
Abhimanyu: Thank you. You will get to hear from us very soon.
Shanaya: Thank you. She got up, walked to the door and closed the door behind her.
She walked out feeling the touch of his hands that still lingered on her hands. Manoj saw her coming and immediately walked to her.
Manoj: I can't believe Abhimanyu rejected you? He said in despair.
Shanaya: Why do you think he rejected me? She asked confused.
Manoj: You came out in 20 minutes. Only the candidates he rejects, come back that fast from his interview. OMG! I was so rooting for you. He said feeling sad.
Manoj: You know, you are very good. So don't be disappointed.
Just then Abhimanyu's PA came to them and told Shanaya that CEO said that she must see their Head HR, Mr. Sarvanan, for an interview before leaving.
Manoj looked on in shock. Then, he congratulated her feeling happy.
It looked like a dream job from the beginning, but a dream job with a man of her dreams looked like a far fetched dream.